grijalva arizona natural-resources environment border mining indigenous
related: _Raul Grijalva Master Profile Westerman
donors: SEIU
The Natural Resources Committee Progressive
Raul Grijalva served as chairman (2019-2023) and ranking member of the House Natural Resources Committee — the committee with jurisdiction over public lands, mining, water rights, tribal affairs, and the National Park Service. Grijalva represents Arizona’s 7th District, which includes Tucson and stretches along the US-Mexico border. He is the most progressive committee leader to hold the Natural Resources gavel in modern history.
Grijalva’s chairmanship marked a shift in the committee’s orientation: from facilitating extraction (mining, drilling, logging on public lands) to conservation and environmental justice. He advanced legislation restricting uranium mining near the Grand Canyon, protecting tribal sacred sites, and reforming the 1872 Mining Law — a 150-year-old statute that allows mining companies to extract minerals from public lands without paying royalties to the federal government.
The 1872 Mining Law — The Oldest Giveaway
The General Mining Act of 1872 allows mining companies to stake claims on federal public lands and extract gold, silver, copper, and other hardrock minerals without paying any royalties to the federal government. Every other extractive industry — oil, gas, coal — pays royalties on public land extraction. Hardrock mining does not. This exemption costs the federal government an estimated $2-4 billion annually in foregone revenue.
Grijalva repeatedly introduced legislation to reform the 1872 Mining Law, impose royalties, and require environmental cleanup bonds. Every attempt has been blocked by the mining industry’s lobbying operation and by Western-state Republicans whose donors include mining companies.
Money
The 1872 Mining Law is the oldest active donor-class extraction mechanism in American law. Mining companies extract billions in minerals from public land and pay zero royalties — a giveaway that has survived 150 years because the mining industry funds the Natural Resources Committee members who could reform it. Grijalva’s reform efforts — blocked every session — demonstrate the structural limit: even a progressive committee chairman cannot overcome an industry that has purchased sufficient votes to protect a 19th-century subsidy.
Sources
- Congress.gov: Raul Grijalva member profile (Tier 1)
- OpenSecrets: Raul Grijalva campaign finance summary (Tier 1)
- GAO: Hardrock mining — updated information on federal royalties (Tier 1)
- Ballotpedia: Raul Grijalva (Tier 3)
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